Ahsoka continued her tour of the base the other Jedi had lived inside for so long. There was a firing range, a pool, and a practice dojo modeled after the ones in the temple on Coruscant.
"The executives of the Commerce Guild wanted to hide in comfort," Aayla noted. "We managed to change some of it up so we could feel like we're back at the temple."
"Good for you," Ahsoka replied. "So, when did you and Bly admit you were in love?"
"Two days after we escaped and faked our deaths in an exploding Commerce Guild base," Aayla answered. "How did you reconnect with Lux?"
"I was on the same planet by chance," the Togruta revealed. "After catching up we, uh, reconnected." Ahsoka blushed, knowing her son was in the next room. Before they could continue, they were interrupted by Rock.
"Revy and I are receiving a transmission from Dutch," he revealed.
"Dutch?" asked Aayla.
"Our captain," Revy explained. "It sounds rather urgent but I'm assuming you don't want to take it in here."
"There is a shuttle that can fly you up," Aayla explained. "What exactly is this message?"
"Like he said, urgent," Revy replied, rather annoyed. "You can watch the message from the sidelines if you want."
"Thank you for the offer," Ahsoka replied before the skeptical Twi'lek could. After they boarded the shuttle alongside Rex, Anakin, and Bly, they flew behind one of Felucia's neighboring planets and opened a channel, with Ahsoka and company standing outside the holo-camera's range. Shortly afterward, an image of the Nikto captain and human slicer appeared. The slicer, named Benny, looked more frantic than usual.
"Jane's in trouble!" the slicer exclaimed.
"What happened?" asked Rock.
"She had to hide, and the only place she could go was a prison barge headed to Despayre," Dutch explained. Despayre was one of the galaxy's most infamous penal colonies. Mostly covered with jungle, the planet was filled with all manner of dangers, from jungle diseases spread by the thorned plants, to aggressive wildlife. As a result, despite having been discovered thousands of years ago, no one had ever attempted to settle the planet. Until the first year of the Empire's reign. Wilhuff Tarkin, one of the first Moffs of the new Empire, turned the planet into a giant prison, its first inmates being POWs from the defeated Separatist Confederacy. Since then, it had become a dumping ground for anyone who had broken the laws of the Empire. Whether you were a serial killer or were simply too close to a protest the Empire had overreacted to, Despayre had a place for you. No one was ever released from Despayre and the only ships allowed there were prison transports and the occasional naval vessel.
"She's hiding in the airducts but they are only three hours from the last jump point before Despayre," Benny explained. "We need to get to her in three hours to rescue her before then."
"Okay, we are next to Felucia, so zip in and we'll board," Rock said. After that, the transmission ended.
"I'll come along," Ahsoka assured her two pupils.
"As will I," Aayla added. Rock and Revy were rather surprised by that statement. "It is in situations like this," she continued, "that a good Jedi is reckless."
"Well, good to know you haven't lost your edge," Ahsoka complimented her old friend. After informing the base on the ground of where they were going, the shuttle headed out. On the way, Ahsoka asked the two who Jane was.
"Janet Bhai is a slicer from Vardos," Rock said. Vardos was a somewhat obscure world in the Southern Core, west of Duro and bordering the Deep Core. Most Vardosians were humans with dark skin, brown eyes, and black hair. Its capital city was called Kestro. "Some time ago, she wound up on the front door of a friend of ours. She'd been hired to make counterfeit credits by a Vigo." Vigo was the title for a high-ranking member of the Black Sun crime syndicate.
"This Vigo got impatient with her, so he moved up the deadline, and killed her assistant to scare her into moving," Revy added. "But Vigo Elvis was an idiot, and Jane ran since he had killed someone too important for the project to replace in the time he'd allotted. She had enough to hire us to get her out of there, and we fought through the Black Sunners and the assortment of dimwit bounty hunters they had sent after her. Elvis was killed by his own underlings for being stupid and wanting to send goons to kidnap her family back in Kestro."
"Why was that a problem?" asked Rex.
"Vardos is one of those planets the Imps like to hold up as the ideal Imperial world," Revy explained. "And it's run by this Law&Order hardass named Garrick Versio, as well as his ex-wife in charge of making propaganda. No way will they allow Black Sun to do anything so nasty in their own city."
"That doesn't mean Black Sun will just forget about her," Aayla noted.
"From what I understand, the only person to lose anything was Vigo Elvis personally," Rock said as he rubbed his spikey hair. "On account of his death, Black Sun doesn't have a quarrel with her."
"That is good to know," Ahsoka replied. She then noted how Benny had seemed rather worried about Jane's well-being.
"They've gone on a few dates, when she's not looking for some money to send back to her mom and little brother back on Vardos," Rock noted. "She was very impressed by how she was able to retrieve the information about her project that only her assistant could access. Good thing, too, otherwise Eda would have been very angry with her."
"Who is Eda?" asked Ahsoka.
"A friend," Revy replied. "Weapons, IDs, if you need it, she can get it. She helped Jane in exchange for the counterfeit project, and she hired us to help. Anyway, Benny is head over heels for Jane." As they waited for the Black Lagoon at the rendezvous, Aayla saw the ship move closer.
"Never thought I would see that again," the Twi'lek noted upon seeing the stealth ship. "How did your captain get his hands on that?"
"Dutch has never revealed that," Revy noted. "And before you ask, yes, it's cloaking device still works." As they docked, the quartet moved from the shuttle onto the Lagoon.
"Well, this is certainly a surprise," noted Dutch. "The locker room at my old station had a pin-up of you, General Secura. Many of the CSF were heartbroken when they heard of your death."
"Well, unfortunately for your friends, I'm spoken for," Aayla replied, displaying her wedding ring. "Though I am surprised how you would go from a policeman to a pirate."
"I wasn't a cop, I was an Underworld cop," he replied. "In the Underlevels, you are a crook, or you are dead. I left because some ISB agent wanted to throw his weight around and being a Nikto made me the ideal candidate for being singled out as part of a 'corruption sweep.'"
"Now that introductions are out of the way, can we focus on rescuing Jane?" asked Benny. As they set the shuttle down on an uninhabited moon, Benny pulled up the schematics for the prison transport.
"I got my last text communication from Jane about an hour ago," he began. "In thirty minutes, it will exit hyperspace here and spend the next hour performing routine checks on the ship and its prisoners. Afterward, it will continue on to Despayre. When it offloads its cargo, it will perform a final life sign scan for anyone outside the crew, in case a current inmate has snuck aboard. At that moment, they will catch Jane, and kill her."
"So, we have no more than an hour to rescue Jane and escape undetected," Dutch noted.
"We're not just rescuing Jane, we're rescuing everyone," Ahsoka intruded. "So, we have an hour to take over the entire ship and get it somewhere else."
"As much fun as that would be, that's not a good idea," noted Revy. "Besides, how many of these people do you actually want to rescue?"
"Many might have made mistakes, many more are only 'criminals' because they opposed the Empire in some way, probably nonviolently since they aren't being actively tortured by the ISB, but from all the information available about Despayre, I wouldn't wish that fate on anyone," Aayla replied.
"Absolutely but there are several problems with it," Dutch explained. "We will need to disable their communications before they can call for help. In addition to the regular guards, which should number about a hundred, and twelve crewmen, there will be no less than fifty-five KX droids patrolling the ship. But that isn't even the hard part."
"Then what is the hard part?" asked Rock.
"Even with over a hundred and fifty assorted Imperials, this ship was meant to house up to a thousand inmates on this journey," Dutch noted. "So, this ship is fitted with a Purge option."
"Purge option?" asked Aayla.
"The cells are along the sides of the ship, stacked on top of each other," Revy explained. "If someone pushes one of two buttons, the sides of the ship will open and send everyone flying out into space. One button is inside this panic room at the back, and another is on the bridge." After hearing this information, Ahsoka and Aayla looked at each other.
"Is there any way to counteract this?" Ahsoka asked.
"One team with have to go to the bridge, while the other will have to go to the panic room," Benny said. "All while not being spotted by any of those Imperials, man or droid."
"Well, Ahsoka and I have beaten worse situations than this," Rex noted. "We just need to look at the plans and we'll get something." After half an hour of studying the blueprints, they had come up with a plan. As they waited for the prison barge to drop out of hyperspace, they rehearsed it again. When the transport exited hyperspace, they were ready.
Engaging the cloaking device, the Lagoon made its way to the closest airlock on the ship. After docking, Benny disabled the alarm on the exterior hatch, ensuring that their arrival would go unnoticed. Ahsoka cut through the hatch with her two lightsabers as quickly as possible, knowing time was of the essence. Using the Force to hold up the severed door, she gently set it down and then dropped to the floor herself. Looking to both sides and seeing nothing, she moved the discarded door out of sight. Calling the rest of the team forward, Aayla, Anakin, Rex, Revy, and Rock dropped down to join her. Bly stayed behind, alongside Dutch and Benny, with the ship. Benny wanted to come along but Dutch noted he'd be more help to Jane in his chair than on the ship. He agreed and gave each of them an override device to place at certain parts of the ship, so that he could slice into its systems from his chair on the Lagoon.
"Okay, we have fifty minutes before they jump to hyperspace, so let's get to work," Ahsoka ordered. Moving swiftly, they split into pairs and moved throughout the ship. Ahsoka and her son would head for the panic room at the back of the ship, Aayla and Bly to the communications suite, and Revy alongside Rock turned toward the bridge. As they made their way, the teams followed Benny's instructions in planting the override devices. As they did so, the slicer made his way into the ship's systems. He could track where the security droids and registered organics were, staff or prisoner. Confirming there were a hundred and twelve crewmen, along with twenty-five KX units. Spotting a patrol of two guards, Rock tossed something into the back of one's head, knocking her down with a hint of blood, and as the second turned around, he threw another object into the man's forehead, quickly killing him. Rushing up, Ahsoka looked at the two fallen guards. Both objects were six-pointed metal stars.
"They are called Shurikens," Rock explained. "Long ago, they were a ranged weapon used when it was best to be silent. These days, they are thrown as part of a sport on Alsakan. I played a few times, and I thought it would be nice to have a quieter weapon."
"Good thinking, but it won't help with this," Ahsoka replied, chopping a droid in half with her lightsaber.
"Well, until we can find some crystals, Rock and I will need to make do," Revy noted as Rock walked over to the bodies and used the Force to pull the Shurikens back to him. Splitting up, the three teams made their way to the three parts of the ship that had to be taken. As Ahsoka and Anakin headed for the panic room, they overheard two guards talking to each other.
"Another month, another Despayre run," one of them said in a rather bored tone. "Twelve hours of flight, half an hour slaved to a remote control on the planet with all the windows closed, another half hour confined to ship while the prisoners are offloaded, an hour of Stormies rifling through all our stuff, and another half hour be remote-piloted back out before jumping to hyperspace. What's the big deal if we see the jungle clearing the landing zone is in the middle of?"
"I don't want to know," replied the second guard. "We'll live longer if we don't."
"What, are they afraid word will get back about how they are testing vaccines on the inmates no one will ever see again?" the first wondered. "It's not like we'd wander that far from the ship."
"Well, better not to know, regardless," the second reiterated. "First time I was here, right before we left, we were visited by this officer, wearing a white uniform with a cape. He started talking in a conceited way that someone had wandered off the ship, even though there was a curfew in place. The captain started to protest, and then one of his guards got all in the captain's face. These weren't random Stormtroopers, their helmets were different, the armor was almost entirely black with some green highlights, and whenever they spoke, it sounded like interference on a comm. Their boss started ranting about how we weren't allowed off for reasons we couldn't know, and then he heard a message that the crewman who snuck off came from another barge. He decided that a warning was in order, so he had a pair of his guards hold the captain so their master could pistol-whip him. After hitting him once, he told us to remember our place, and then left to deal with the crew of the second barge, allowing us to take off from the planet. Next time I saw that barge, it had a new number, and a completely new crew. So, you better not get curious when we set down." Ahsoka was surprised by what she overheard. As far as she knew, Despayre was just another penal colony. But if the Empire was using it for a secret project, maybe it deserved more consideration the next time she met with the Alliance leadership. But that was something to worry about another day. Evading the pair, Ahsoka made her way to the panic room alongside her son and saw a single guard inside reading a datapad. As he turned around, Ahsoka swung her ignited lightsaber, beheading the goon. Anakin saw another come around the corner and stabbed his knife into the guard's throat, dragging his body into the panic room. After her son went inside and locked the door behind him, ensuring no Imperial could use this Purge button, Ahsoka turned around and headed forth for the barracks where the off-duty guard shift was.
Meanwhile, Aayla and Bly moved toward the communication array. As they moved, Aayla wasn't sure of what to think of Ahsoka. It had been many years since she and Bly had first worked with her alongside her master and Rex on Maridun, stopping an overly ambitious Neimoidian from testing an incendiary device on the Lurmen colony there. Ahsoka had been very enthusiastic, bordering on reckless, in that adventure. Aayla expected to see some of that when she heard Ahsoka had survived and was coming to their Hidden Temple. But if anything, it seemed like those traits had gotten stronger since then. Admittedly, she hadn't followed Ahsoka's career that closely after the five of them defeated Lok Durd. She had been fighting in the battle of Cartao when Ahsoka was framed for bombing the Jedi Temple and had been rather disheartened to learn Ahsoka had left after the ordeal. The last time she had seen or heard from Ahsoka was during a meeting she had been called to, after she defeated Darth Maul on Mandalore. Aayla was greatly impressed to hear Ahsoka had beaten such a terrible foe but during that meeting, Ahsoka seemed distracted, as if she was reflecting on something that only she knew. Then, just a few hours later, Order 66 came down, and Aayla had no way of knowing if Ahsoka had survived or not. If training these two mercenaries called Revy and Rock were any indication, Ahsoka had become even more reckless than before.
"Six hostiles in the comm suite," her husband said, intruding on her thoughts. "One KX droid, the rest organic." Aayla returned to the task at hand. As distasteful as it was, all the crew and guards would have to be killed. The prisoners could be stopped from learning they were liberated by Jedi survivors and were unlikely to betray them regardless, but there was no way they could hide their involvement without killing the entire crew. She nodded to Bly and directed him to shoot the organic guards while she charged fast at the droid and chopped it in half before the unit could grab a weapon. Bly swiftly shot four of the crew while Aayla stabbed another before he could hit the alarm. After entering the communication room, they plugged call an access tool Benny gave them into the ship.
"Okay, I'm stopping their communications from going out, now," the slicer told them in their earpieces. "Now, I'm working on their backup transponder. Soon as Revy and Rock handle the one on the bridge, we'll be impossible to track, here. Move to your secondary position to deal with the rest of the Imps."
"Wonder if we know any of the guys in this tub," wondered Revy as she and Rock made their way to the bridge of the prison barge.
"We'll be able to check the list from the bridge," Rock reminded her. As they walked to the bridge, thoughts stirred in Revy. Rock noticed and asked what was on her mind.
"I'm not sure how to feel about becoming a Jedi," Revy admitted. "I always thought of them as weirdos who ignored the masses below before the real power in the galaxy got tired of them. Now, I learn it's real, and that I can be one? It's a lot to process."
"I didn't hear much about the Jedi growing up," Rock admitted. "Just what I saw filtered through the news that told of heroic Jedi and clones smashing through millions of droids. Then, one day, the Jedi are bad and are all dead." Pausing for a moment as they looked to both sides of a hallway, Rock continued the conversation. "What do you think of the other survivors on Felucia?"
"The Whiphid worships rules and the 'good old days' that clearly didn't exist if where he is now is any indication," she began. "The guy with white hair looked like one of those cops enraged by the sight of me. The Devaronian looked suspicious but not unreasonable. This Twi'lek looks like what my dad and others like him thought the Jedi were. Not sure if she is yet. Tano, though, if more Jedi were like her, I think the Order would still be here."
"What do you think of the duties of a Jedi?" he asked as they came up on the bridge.
"I've never been a hero, but there's a first time for everything," she replied. Getting on both sides of the doorway to the bridge, they saw that Jane had been captured and was being questioned by the bridge crew. Jane wore an orange vest with a white blouse and green miniskirt. She looked a lot like the typical Vardosian, except instead of black hair, she was blond. When asked about it, she remarked that Vardos had once been controlled by Kuat and there was no shortage of marriage between the two people.
"Who were you contacting?" the captain asked. He seemed strangely familiar to Rock.
"My brother," the slicer replied. "It's his twelfth birthday next week and he was wondering if I could come."
"You know, you're a pretty girl," he said, grasping her chin. "Some of the scabs down there, they're real animals. Many haven't seen someone as pretty as you in a while. I could introduce you to them. Unless you start telling me who sent you here and who you're reporting to."
"I told you, I was hiding from some Pykes who I saw kill someone," she said. "I hid here and panicked. I was just hoping to stay out of trouble until you came back from wherever you were going. I'll testify to the crime if you want."
"Okay, take down to the zoo," the captain told one of his flunkies. At that moment, Revy charged in with both blaster pistols and opened fire, hitting the two guards restraining Jane. As Rock moved in and shot the executive officer, tossing a throwing star into the helmsman, Revy kicked the captain in the face, knocking him down. She quickly shot the rest of the bridge crew before they could grab their weapons.
"Great to see you, Revy, and you too Rock," Jane said with a smile, eliciting a flash of anger from Revy as she disabled the Purge button.
"Yeah, Benny's back on the Lagoon waiting for you now, you can kiss him when you see him," Revy replied in a rather angry tone. She then contacted the Lagoon to let them know that Jane had been retrieved, to Benny's relief. Jane was surprised to learn that they had help and they were trying to rescue all the prisoners.
"That's what Jedi are supposed to do, help people in need," Revy snarked. Jane was rather surprised by that comment, having considered the Jedi and the Force to be more myth than fact. She was even more skeptical when Revy revealed she and Rock were now being trained as Jedi. At that moment, their commlink chirped up. It was Ahsoka reporting in along with Aayla that their missions were successful and it was now time to deal with the rest of the crew. As Revy turned her back, the captain got back up, grabbed Jane and pulled his blaster.
"Drop your weapons, now!" he commanded. Revy, however, just kept her blasters pointed at the captain. Rock then recognized the captain.
"You should surrender, Keishiro," the former accountant told his brother. The prison barge commander was shocked by who he saw in front of him.
"Rokuro, I always knew you couldn't make it, no wonder you've joined the Rebellion with the rest of the rejects," the older sibling sarcastically retorted.
"You are the reject, bro, given how you are ferrying convicts to a forgotten planet instead of signing autographs to your fans after a game," Rock mocked Keishiro over his failed aspirations. "You'd do much better for yourself if you went into business with people like Revy and Jane, here. They'd reward your talents, unlike the Empire."
"I've finally found my true calling in life, little brother," Keishiro mocked, unaware that Rock was using his telekinesis to pull the shuriken he'd thrown out of the crewman behind Keishiro. "Reminding the dregs of society of where they are on the totem pole has been very satisfying. Soon, they and all who defy their betters in the Empire will suffer for it. I have seen the glory that is coming."
"Keishiro, you will surrender," Rock commanded with the power of the Force.
"Don't be absurd!" Keishiro retorted as he moved the blaster he was holding away from Jane toward Rock. At that moment, Rock used the Force to pull the throwing star into Keishiro's right shoulder, knocking him away from Jane. He tried to point his blaster at his younger brother but as soon as that happened, Rock fired repeatedly with his pistol into Keishiro's chest, killing him. Rock was shocked by what he had just done, at which point Revy shot three guards that Keishiro had summoned for help along. They were followed by one of the security droids, which needed three blaster bolts to take down. Soon afterward, an alarm rang out across the ship. Having no time to reflect on what he had just done, Rock knelt and used his battle meditation to empower Revy and the rest of the allies, while sapping the power of all their enemies except droids. Rock could see the battle happening through his use of the Force. He saw Ahsoka cutting through guards left and right, he saw Bly gunning down crewmen while Aayla split a droid in half as it was coming up behind him, and he saw Revy shoot one Imperial after another. He didn't know how long it was but soon, all the Imperials on the ship had been killed, at which point, he withdrew from the Meditation. At that moment, they were joined on the bridge by Benny, whose arms Jane leapt into, as well as Ahsoka. After confirming they wouldn't be tracked, along with retrieving the shuttle they had used to rendezvous with the Lagoon, they jumped the barge into hyperspace, far from its destination and toward safety.
You might be wondering why the Jedi would free a bunch of convicts. Well, there is a good chance that many of them are only criminals by Imperial standards. They will take this ship to a place where the prisoners can be sorted, and then decide what to do with them. One of which will be a familiar face for Black Lagoon fans. I made many references to Black Lagoon and Star Wars continuity, here. Most Star Wars fans will know the secret of Despayre. How they met Jane in the cartoon was pretty much the same as it was here.